Child Again - Part 1/1
by Hay
Summary: Piper reflects on her life...lyrics - Child Again - Beth Nielsen Chapman


Child Again - Amber and Hay  
  
charmedhay@softhome.net  
natz333@aol.com  
  
~~~  
She's wheeled into the hallway   
Till the sun moves down the floor   
Little squares of daylight   
Like a hundred times before   
~~~  
  
The years had passed quickly, time had rushed by and dreams were left unfulfilled. She had raised children and watched them walk away and live their lives. She had fallen in and out of love, found her soul mate and watched him whisper sweet goodbyes and leave to dance amongst the heavens.  
  
Still she sat in the same old chair, fire roaring in the background, the aged photo album as they would always look at together resting in her frail hands. Happy smiling faces, Mel's first birthday, her sweet sixteenth, his clipping his wings...their final wedding anniversary at fifty years of wedded bliss. The same faces, older, some more wrinkled, some more grown up, than in all the other photos. The cake she had made for the occasion, his hand resting lightly in hers, eyes sparkling towards each other as always. Children, grandchildren, crowded round them, each resembling either him or her in some way.   
  
~~~  
She's taken to the garden   
For the later afternoon   
Just before her dinner   
They return her to her room  
~~~  
  
Her chair began to move again and she squinted against the blinding sunlight as she was wheeled outside. The birds flew overhead and a breeze blew softly against her wrinkled skin. Every line telling the story of events long since lived but never once forgotten. Sun beat down on her skin as it has done countless times through the years. The picnic's Leo had prepared and served in the park, the kids running happily with the wind. She was no longer mourning, just simply lonely, a life of love suddenly just a life. She was lonely for his touch, his hands wrapped lightly around her own, his lips gently brushing her cheek.  
  
~~~  
And inside her mind   
She is running   
She is running in the summer wind   
Inside her mind   
She is running in the summer wind   
Like a child again   
~~~  
  
As children they were inseparable, running through dense bushes and along the sandy banks of a crystal clear stream. His hand would instinctively find hers as they scrambled up the small dunes; their faces splashed with water, cooling as the summer breeze blew their hair back. Piper was there again, a smile forming on her face as she tilted her face to the sun and childish shrieks echoed through her mind and faces of heaven littered her vision.  
  
~~~  
The family comes on Sunday   
And they hover for awhile   
They fill her room with chatter   
And they form a line of smiles   
~~~  
  
A nurse other than the one pushing her chair came up to her, kneeling and slowly forming words, treating Piper as an infant. "Mrs Wyatt?" Piper gave a small nod. "Your daughters and grandchildren are here to see you. Would you like that?" She continued slowly and deliberately. Piper smiled genuinely as she was wheeled back to her room, and replied that she would. Both nurses left her to be as the hot sun beating down on her neck through the window reminded her of so many happy days and years gone by, and she could hear the   
footsteps running down the hall.   
  
~~~  
Children of her children   
Bringing babies of their own   
Sometimes she remembers   
Then her mama calls her home  
~~~  
  
Kisses were pressed to her cheeks and idle chatter filled the room, each with a tale of their own to share. Piper listened intently, trying to prevent her mind from wondering to a place where only herself and her angels could be. But evidently, it strayed. Voices calling for her, begging her to come back and play amongst the shadows and run through the miles of long grass. She sighed deeply as the kisses returned, this time bidding her goodbye. She could return again to a place where pain did not exist and love was free and true.  
  
~~~  
Playmate, come out and play with me   
(It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring)   
And bring your dollies three   
(Bumped his head on the edge of the bed)   
Climb up my apple tree   
(Never got up in the morning)   
Slide down my rain barrel   
(Rain, rain, go away)   
Into my cellar door   
(Come again another day)   
And we'll be jolly friends   
(Little Johnny wants to play)   
Forevermore   
(Some more)  
~~~  
  
Suddenly she was back to her childhood home, legs never tiring as she ran in front of him, bodies sodden from the rain which lashed from the sky, soaking clothes and hair as childish giggles filled the vast garden, his feet trampling the grass hers just had. Her laughter filled screams turned to singing, as the running continued and the rain poured heavier, causing the   
ground to become marshy. Yet still they ran and sang and played oblivious, loving every second of each other's company.   
  
Piper sang loudly, so Leo could hear her above the rain on his ears and the thunder in the sky. "It's raining, it's pouring; the old man is snoring!" She began, knowing he would quickly pick up the song.   
  
"Bumped his head on the edge of the bed!" He shouted more than sang, buckle shoes splashing in puddles in the grass. Drips flew up on to back but she was too wet to notice and her sweet voice continued to fill his ears.   
  
"Never got up in the morning!" She chanted.   
  
"Rain, rain, go away..." Leo continued.  
  
"Come again another day!" Piper recited, her eyes dancing as she threw her hands to the heavens.  
  
"Little Johnny wants to play some more!" Leo finished, the exhaustion finally getting to him   
and he threw himself in a heap into the soft rain soaked grass, droplets of water flying up and splashing in his eyes. His closed them and she could feel his breath on her as she sat quietly beside him.  
  
Piper blinked her eyes continually, trying to clear her vision. She wasn't really a child again, she wasn't out playing in the rain and letting her heart roam free. She was in a small single room, a few photographs placed on her bedside table, a single dying rose in a small vase in the middle. She stared to the ceiling, her body becoming heavy and breathing laboured. The patterns above her, they were moving...little children running through fields of flowers and splashing each other when they reached the river edge. She blinked again. They disappeared. She wanted them back. Blinking again, they returned. Their tiny hands all reaching for her, calling her name. They were smiling...laughing...loving...  
  
~~~  
And inside her mind   
She is running   
She is running in the summer wind   
Like a child again  
~~~  
  
She let them take her and suddenly she was standing in the field, the children's voices carrying to her ears and bringing a grin to her face. Her skin became smooth and energy endless. Her dull eyes were littered with stars again. And with the tender kiss from her one true love, her soul was renewed and love became all that mattered in a triumph of spirit for all eternity.  
  
Finish  



End file.
